Transactional processing systems typically are composed of a number of processing modules or applications which provide specific functionality and are generally distributed geographically and in communication with one another over some network, either a LAN or a WAN. As long as these applications are homogenous, that is that they have been designed by a single vendor or have been designed to a single communications standard, or designed such that the data that is entered into the system is formatted in a manner that permits other modules in the distributed system to readily process the transactional information, there are typically very few integration issues associated with the system. As often happens, these systems are designed with a particular number of modules to provide a particular set of functions. Over time, other application modules become available that could be added to the system that would extend the systems functionality and provide for a more robust transactional processing system. These additional application modules may or may not be designed by the original systems developer or vendor and so may or may not plug into the existing system without some level of engineering effort or integration. This integration effort is typically performed by an integration engineer with the help of an integration consultant. This cooperative effort is time consuming for both the integration engineer and the consultant supporting the integration.
It would be advantageous if this integration process could be conducted by the integration engineer without the time consuming cooperation of the integration consultant that is typically necessary to perform such integration. It would be advantageous if at the end of the integration process, the integration engineer was assured that the integration process was performed correctly, such that all transactions that are created and placed into the system are processed as they are expected to be processed.
We have solved the above problem associated with the process of integrating one or more new application modules into an existing transactional management system. Specifically, we have developed an integration process that requires little to no integration consultation support be provided to the integration engineer, and which results in the integration engineer having a high degree of confidence that the new application module has been correctly integrated into an existing transactional management system.